Can I walk there?

We’re moving to Washington, D.C. in August. It’s official. Carlos has orders. I made all the necessary appointments on base with the Housing Office and Personal Property. Let the paperwork pile! I reserved a room at the Navy Lodge for my last few days in Japan. I will go to Kyoto in June with a friend. Farewell Kyoto! I’m making lists, lots of them, and anyone who knows me well knows when I’m making lists I’m frenetic and happy at the same time. I’m frappy. [Side note: I’m listening to Mary J. Blige’s “Just Fine” and I suggest you join me. It’s frappy good.]

He-of-the-Moustache and I plan to buy a house for the first time. We have lived a delightful, relatively obligation-free life together for almost fifteen years. No kids, no pets. I work in book publishing when/where I can, and when I can’t I find another way to make a little dosh. Over all these years, when the Navy said “move,” we picked up our well-under-the Navy-weight-allowance household goods and rented in fab neighborhoods like Coronado, California (twice); Old Town Alexandria, Virginia; Posillipo, Naples; Marylebone, London; and Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.

Sure, that last one doesn’t fit and it was the only time we lived on a base. Let me tell you, the Air Force knows how to put together a comfy military base. They handed us the keys to a huge house with a laundry room and a third bedroom that sat empty. The only problem we had was Mr. Housing Inspector would issue a ticket if one let the grass get too tall. So, we hired a teenager to mow the lawn. Actually, he hired himself by showing up one day with a lawnmower. When our regular kid moved away, we tried to hire a friend’s twelve-year-old, but our friend was so nervous about his child operating the mower that he and Carlos sat on the front porch and drank beer while the poor kid endured constant critiques of his technique. Being twelve sucks. But I digress…

Moving to Washington and buying a house means I have to learn about: mortgages, loan officers, hiring a buyer broker and not a seller rep, crime maps, looking at comps on Zillow.com, trying not to look (on beltwaymls) at $900,000 townhouses in Capitol Hill (ok, so I peeked, ouch), and deciding where to live.

I’m soliciting advice from all my friends and family. I ordered books on buying a house. I attended a house buying seminar on base. I’m making those lists. But I already know one thing: I want to live somewhere where I can walk to stores and restaurants and parks and farmer’s markets and Metro stops and maybe even museums. All our past great neighborhoods allowed us to walk to restaurants and shops or to hop a bus (or tube or funicular) to whatever city pleasure we desired. That is how I want to live in Washington. My question for real estate agents will be: “What can I walk to?”

Imagine my delight when I found Walk Score, a Web site devoted to scoring neighborhoods on the basis of “walkability.”

We help home buyers, renters, and real estate agents find houses and apartments in great neighborhoods. Walk Score shows you a map of what’s nearby and calculates a Walk Score for any property. Buying a house in a walkable neighborhood is good for your health and good for the environment.

Of course, the Walk Score people admit that the program can’t take into account things like crime and steep hills. Nevertheless, the existence of this Web site makes me think perhaps Americans aren’t all car mad.

But even in regions that have taken a beating, some neighborhoods remain practically unscathed. And a pattern is emerging as to which neighborhoods those are.

The ones with short commutes are faring better than places with long drives into the city. Some analysts see a pause in what has long been inexorable — urban sprawl.

So, Carlos and I shall be forced to pay a premium to live in Dupont Circle or Capitol Hill or Alexandria or perhaps in one of the “revitalizing” downtown neighborhoods. The housing prices have not decreased very much in walkable neighborhoods inside the Beltway.

I recently wrote a friend about how I wanted to live in the most “European” Washington neighborhood. I was thinking about walkability and about—frankly—cheese shops. Are there any cheesemongers in Washington? I suspect there may be some at the Eastern Market (when they rebuild it). I like mongers. In London, our butcher was a tall, handsome Belgian guy who would smile and wave at me when I passed the shop. Will there be hunky Belgians waving at me in Washington? Probably not. But if you know a place…

8 comments

Hi! Saw your blog post mentioning Eastern Market and I am happy to report to you that you don’t have to wait till the rehabilitation to shop at eastern maket for cheese. The merchants are in business in the temporary East Hall. it is located across 7th street from the Market Building and is open Tuesday through Sunday.
Donna Scheeder, Chair
Eastern Market Community Advisory Committee

Evan and I may not be hunky butchers but we will wave the Belgian flag at you when you visit our house in DC!
I confirm the great cheese selection at Eastern Market. You also don’t want to miss breakfast on Saturday morning…

I’m with you on the walkability. The best place I ever lived was Zurich.
We lived in the centre of the city and I could walk to work. The public transport was so excellent that we never needed a car. It was a small city, so everything was so close by it was very easy. Being the centre of Europe was great too as a short train ride took us to France, Germany, Italy or Austria.
Tokyo is not too bad for walkability and I don’t have to tell you how good the transport it.
I hope you find somewhere good to live in DC.

As the world turns…
Six degrees of separation (give or take a few degrees) is leading my childhood horseback riding buddy back to the East coast. Isn’t there a neighborhood somewhere around DC with a couple of hitchin’ posts?

Madam says: Hey gal, hope you are well. Did a group email go around? I’ve been getting these messages from past lives…

I hope you and Carlos find a great place in D.C. I live about 3 hours away by car and would love to be able to meet up. Not within walking distance, but we do enjoy day trips to D.C. every once in a while.

I really like that photo of the lists. Did the list maker question your taking of the photograph? It’s just so personal and beautiful in a messy way.

Madam says: See ya in the States! The list maker was a bonito flake vendor in Tsukiji Market. I snapped his desk quickly as I was walking by.

I have enjoyed reading your blog. I just moved to Naples and am looking for Asian ingredients. When you lived here did you know of any places that sold miso? They told me of a Chinese store near Garibaldi station. Any thing you can tell me would be great. Thanks.

Madam says: Hi, thanks for writing. I was in Naples 1997 to 2000, so it has been a while, my advice may not be very useful. I hope you enjoy Naples. I loved living there. I must admit while we were there I gave up on food other than Neapolitan because, at least at that time, the Neapolitans weren’t much into other cuisines and the non-Italian restaurants were pretty grim. Neapolitan food is incredibly varied and delicious; I spent a good amount of time learning the traditional dishes and seafood of the area. When we left, I went back to eating Japanese and other cuisines. Having said that, try macrobiotic and vegetarian places for alternative ingredients. My landlord was a macrobiotic vegan, and I know she ate a lot of Indian food. For example, I found this in a search: http://www.sorrisointegrale.com/ There was a place I used to visit that had stuff like brown rice and various seaweeds, but for the life of me I can’t remember where it was.

There are many kinds of restaurants near Garibaldi Station, including a store that sells some international foods. I’m not sure it carried Japanese ingredients, but I think it had some Asian goods. It’s at the far opposite end of the piazza facing the station. I wonder if it’s still open. I don’t remember a decent Chinese restaurant there, but there was a fabulous North African place that served amazing couscous dishes. Again, sorry I don’t remember the name.

Are you in the military? At the Family Service Center on base there are Italians on staff that helped me a lot. I also combed through the yellow pages. Even if you don’t read Italian, you can figure out the restaurant and grocery listings. Also, go to the tourist information office and ask them.

Yes, there are Chinese restaurants all around town, but when I was there they weren’t very good. But someone told me there is a sushi place now in Naples. Perhaps this is it: http://www.kukai.it/. Ask the chef where he gets his miso! You could also look into mail order from the States (again if you are military and have an APO address).